Sifting through the BS

I dove in and Im working on schooling myself on all things social media. I stopped at the book store to pick up some magazines and books to inspire and educate. There were an insane amount of books about social media I grabbed about 10 of them that looked interesting. I found most of the books I was looking at were not the in-depth, how to books I was looking for. It was more about personal experiences and successes, and they were written very badly. Maybe its just how Im wired, but I wanted something informative and that I could use as a resource. Out of those 10, I ended up with 2 that I bought; "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Social Media" and "Get Seen, online video secrets to building your business". I also bought my standard magazines; Inc, Entrepreneur, and Mac Create. To be honest I think I get more out of the magazines then the books. Magazines have to keep creative to keep people buying and reading. Mac Create had allot of useful, creative ideas and how-to for video and photo which I think will really come in handy when I start to video blog.

What is great about Social Media is that allows everyone access to what people are really thinking. Eric Schwartzman had a great quote: "The news reports on what happened, social media is whats happening now". It also allows anyone to become a Journalist, Critic, or even Celebrity. The problem is, everyone is an expert, so you have to sift through allot of BS to get to the useful information. Also everyone is out to make a buck. Some do it by offering their service, or expertise for a price. Whether they are a consultant or author. Watch out there is more "snake oil" out there then people who truly have something worth while to offer.

immersing myself in social media

I have continued to join network after network, downloaded SM apps to my Iphone (Cant wait to get my new iphone 4 tomorrow ). I now belong to 12 of the most common Social Media networks. Im not using most of them right now. Really im just posting on Facebook, some mild Tweeting and Blogging almost daily. This is all part of my plan to fully immerse myself in Social Media. Once I get more comfortable with what Im doing and the message im conveying I plan on Podcasting and Video blogging as well, but for now Ill stick to what I know. I have recently signed up for a tweet-up. This is a SM networking party designed to get the word out about products, services, events, and people. Im attending both as a sponsor and a guest. For a 100.00 my product will go into 120 gift bags that each guest will receive. These guests will tweet about the items they receive. This is also a good opportunity to extend my social network. If I were to organize a a market research group of about 25-100 people it would cost me a minimum of 5,000. Im getting more peoples opinion on my product and they are even advertising it for me. Not to mention instead of a boring conference room with a double mirror, its actually more of a party atmosphere. People in their environment expressing opinions and exchanging ideas.

Im going to attempt to inset links into my posts so you may find it easier to follow.